Former Enemalta chairman Charles Mangion yesterday summed up the Enemalta Bill as the first step in giving a failed corporation based on debt and higher tariffs a new foundation with better environmental safeguards, no longer needing government subsidies but contributing dividends and providing new work opportunities.
He said Enemalta had always been an essential monopoly with far-reaching economic and financial effects.
Today it was a millstone around the necks of both the government and Bank of Valletta, something which both the Europ-ean Commission and rating agencies had repeatedly drawn attention to.
The outlook of the government’s actions is so positive the European Investment Bank has come forward and offered to help
It was marked by lack of investment in its distribution infrastructure, with some €200 million now needed to make things better. But the outlook of the government’s current actions was so positive that the European Investment Bank had come forward and offered to help.
Strategic development under the previous administration was conspicuous by its absence.
On the interconnector, Dr Mangion said the Nationalist government had always spoken simply of the laying of undersea cables, but it had left a lot of unsolved problems, making for costly delays.
The government was looking at an additional outlay of €50 million because only part of the project had been estimated for the request of EU financial aid.
These problems had also continued to delay the decommissioning of the Marsa power station to the detriment of Marsa residents.
Dr Mangion said the reserves that Enemalta used to put aside from its profits had been eaten up, from a positive €90 million in 2001 to a deficit of €100 million in 2012. The corporation’s annual losses, in spite of higher tariffs from 2009, had only been made to look less bad thanks to profits by the Petroleum Division.
The setting up of ARMS Ltd had made for a negative cashflow because there were still arrears of some €140 million to recoup. These had forced Enemalta to incur more debts in order to pay for salaries and oil imports.
The level of debts absorbed all the corporation’s assets on paper. This made things very difficult with banks, even when considering capital projects.
Dr Mangion said that following the EU Treaty, the generation of electricity had not remained a monopoly of Enemalta but it had retained its monopoly on distribution, with exclusive control of where to buy its electricity supplies.
The new Enemalta plc would remain under government control – so much for the Opposition’s unfounded scaremongering, including on the safeguarding of jobs. These were the same Nationalists who had given meaningless assurances to Go workers and meted out such rough treatment to employees of a profitable Sea Malta.